Cervélo's Tirreno squad to tackle Eroica

Cervélo TestTeam has named its line-ups for Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, with the squad's roster for the Italian stage race to face a final tune up at the Montepaschi Strade Bianche in Tuscany on Saturday.

The Professional Continental squad will send an almost identical line-up to both the Tuscan semi-Classic and Tirreno, with Norway's Thor Hushovd scheduled to replace Italian neo-pro Davide Appollonio for the latter event. Appollonio will, however, be given his opportunity to perform on home soil after he was named as Cervélo's co-captain for the one-day race.

"I am confident we have a very strong team for Montepaschi," said Cervélo's Sports Director for the event, Jens Zemke. "The riders are very motivated. In Roger Hammond we have a specialist who is ideal for this kind of race and our young Italian rider, Davide Appollonio, is also very motivated to perform well as this will be his first pro race in his home country."

Seven members of the Montepaschi roster will then travel to Livorno for the start of Tirreno-Adriatico. There they will be joined by their captain for the seven-day race, Thor Hushovd, who will hope to add to his 2006 stage win as he builds towards Milano-Sanremo.

"Thor will led the team for this race," said Sports Director Jean-Paul van Poppel,. "Our goal here is to make as strong a showing as possible and to win a stage."

Cervélo's depth will also see the team present a strong front at the start of Paris-Nice on Sunday. Sports Director Philippe Mauduit said that while members of their roster including Heinrich Haussler will use the event as preparation for the major Classics, they will head to France with the intention of stage wins and a high overall finish.

"We are not simply using this race for training, Paris-Nice is too important for that," he said. "We will try to go for a stage win and see what we can do in the GC. For that we're looking to Joaquín Novoa and probably Xavier Tondo to do something.

"While they will probably not be able to go for the win, they will certainly go for the best possible placement. For the flatter stages we'll have our sprinter, Heinrich Haussler, who won the second stage in last year's edition."

Cervélo TestTeam for Montepaschi Strade Bianche (March 6): Roger Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, Ignatas Konovalovas, Brett Lancaster, Gabriel Rasch and Martin Reimer.

Cervélo TestTeam for Paris-Nice (March 7-14): Xavier Florencio, Volodimir Gustov, Heinrich Haussler, Ted King, Daniel Lloyd, Joaquín Novoa, Dominique Rollin and Xavier Tondo.

Cervélo TestTeam for Tirreno-Adriatico (March 10-16): Roger Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, Thor Hushovd, Andreas Klier, Ignatas Konovalovas, Brett Lancaster, Gabriel Rasch and Martin Reimer.